Shoestring Marketing Secrets

Marketing is like going on a trip.  To reach your goal or destination, you need to know where you are going and how will get there.  In other words, you need a plan.  Before you embark on any marketing effort, take the time to consider these questions:

Who will buy your product or service

Why do you need it

How will they hear about and buy this product or service

Why should they buy it from you instead of your competitors

How many customers can you reasonably expect to serve

What are you trying to accomplish

What will it cost in time and money

What materials will you use in your marketing efforts

The first place to start with your marketing efforts are with friends and family.  Get the word out that you are in business.  As long as the business provides a needed or desirable product or service, most people will be happy to pass on suggestions they can to help you get started.

Avoid marketing to the wrong prospects, which is a common mistake start up businesses make.  To avoid making the wrong assumptions about the desirability of products or services, talk to your potential customers before you start a business or introduce a product.

Target businesses that can afford your services. Focus on high- income professionals who have been in business for a year or more.  Emphasize your experience, professionalism and ability to deliver quality products and services in a time efficient manner.  To close sales, remind top earners that based on their hourly billing rate, it is cheaper to hire you than to do the work themselves.

Don't try to tackle a large diverse market on a shoestring budget.  To build sales and grow your business, you have to get your name in front of prospects repeatedly.  The way to profit when there are many customers and many competitors is to break down the big market into small, manageable segments.  Concentrate your marketing efforts on one or two of these segments.

Become an active member of Business Associations and Civic Groups.  Personal contact is the least expensive and most reliable way of finding customers for your business.  Ease your way gently into these groups.  IF you join an organization and seem over-bearing or try too hard to impress members with your expertise, you may make more enemies than business contact.  Get listed in member directories, which is included as part of your membership.

Cross-promote your business with others in the same targeting market.  You will gain valuable new business by linking up with other non-competing businesses to cross-promote each other's products and services. If you are a resume writer, for instance, you might want to work out a deal with a print shop.  Cross promotional and cross-referral opportunities are all around if you look.

Turn your fax machine into a sales tool. The text on most fax cover sheets take up only about half of the available space on a page.  You can get more mileage out of every fax transmission you send by including promotional material on every cover sheet.

If you sell products, design your cover sheet so you can include ads for products you want to feature.  Your ad will ride free every time you send an outgoing fax to your existing customers, suppliers, or others with whom you do business.

Teach a class on a subject related to your business. Teachers are expected to be experts so this is yet another way to gain prestige in the eyes of your targeted customers.  Depending on where the class is held and who is sponsoring it, this can also be a good way to sell products related to your subject matter.

Keep your name in front of customers and prospects with a Newsletter or Ezine.  Newsletters are one of the most widely used and effective ways to communicate with your customers.  Include information in your newsletter that the recipients will want to read.  Present it in an appropriate format.  Send it to a very targeted mailing list and be sure to send out new issues on a regular basis so your name is fresh in the customer's mind when they do need your services or products.

Use every opportunity to distribute your business card. Don't wait to meet contacts in person to give them your business card.  Drop your business card in letters to new contacts, include one or two in presentation folders and attach them to brochures or catalogs.  It is not unusual for contacts to throw away the sales literature, but save the business card for future reference.  If you sell consumer services, tack your business cards to bulletin boards at beauty parlors, supermarkets, colleges, or other bulletin boards.

If your marketing funds are limited, don't gamble them all on one big ad or one mass mailing. Most one-shot marketing methods don't work.

Instead, use the low-cost and no-cost marketing techniques discussed to gradually establish a client base and positive cash flow.  Wait to spend the big marketing bucks until you have the business infrastructure in place, have tested yoru marketing ideas and have a cushion of profits and satisfied customers on which you can rely for steady profits.

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
*-- Henry Ford